I was at the Wild Boar in Hopkins with a bunch of other Twins bloggers and people I've never seen before in my life, and when I got home I noticed there was not a recap for tonight's game. If this keeps happening, we're going to have to rename Twinkie Town as Bryz Town.
Tonight's game was a bit of a dud from the beginning. In the second inning, new Twins starter Jason Marquis and Co. found inventive ways to allow the Red Sox to circle the bases at will. It started with a leadoff double to left field by Darnell McDonald, which then he moved to third base when Ryan Doumit had trouble fielding the ball in the corner. If you remember from the game thread, this was Doumit's first appearance ever, majors or minors, in left field.
The next three batters also reached, along with a Marquis wild pitch just for good measure, which at the time was his second of the game. Toss in a walk, an RBI groundout, and a throwing error by Justin Morneau, and by the time the dust settled (literally and figuratively), Marquis was being pulled with 2 outs in the 2nd inning and a 4-0 deficit. His final line wasn't pretty: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 3 WP. Ladies and gentlemen, your newest "strike thrower" in the Twins rotation.
After a solo homer by David Ortiz, the Twins chipped away at the lead in the 5th inning. Mike Hollimon and Denard Span led off with singles and each moved up a base on a balk by pitcher Will Inman (not to be confused with Will Ohman). Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Joe Mauer then followed with consecutive RBI singles to make the score 5-2.
The Red Sox put away the game in the 7th inning when they scored 5 runs, with the big blow coming from a 3-run homer by the Red Sox's third catcher in the game, Dan Butler. At least Jason Marquis can take solace in knowing that Deolis Guerra, the pitcher in the 7th inning, had a rougher outing tonight.
The Battle For Squatter's Rights, a.k.a. The Third Catcher Battle (Players ordered by probability of winning, in my opinion)
J.R. Towles - Did not play
Drew Butera - Did not play
Today's Dark Horse, Dan Rohlfing - Unlike the lazy bums above, Rohlfing did play tonight and went 0 for 1. Right now, he is the darkest of dark horses that have made an appearance in this feature. Chill out, Jesse, that was not a race joke.
Studs
Joe Mauer (2 for 3, 1 RBI), Josh Willingham (Single, walk, and HBP in 3 plate appearances)
Duds
Trevor Plouffe (0 for 2, 2 K), Jason Marquis (1.2 IP, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 wild pitches), Deolis Guerra (1 IP, 5 ER, 4 H)